Everyone should visit Niagara Falls at least once. The sheer amount of water rushing over the falls is a sound that can’t quickly be forgotten. Having kids is not a reason for skipping out of seeing this amazing natural wonder.
This past October, during Fall Break for our kids, we visited the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. The planning was a breeze thanks to the Niagara Falls Adventure Pass. For one discounted price, you gain admission to several “must-sees” and coupons to use at local restaurants and stores. There are two pass options and we chose the “Plus” package. Since our daughter was five during our visit, her pass was free with an adult purchase (this is only applicable with the Adventure Pass- she would NOT have been free at most of the actual attractions.) Both passes include a ride on the Hornblower, the Journey Behind the Falls, a 4-D movie about Niagara Falls (Niagara’s Fury,) White Water Walk, two CONSECUTIVE days of complimentary Wego transportation, and coupons. We chose the Plus package because it included the Whirlpool Aerocar and the Butterfly Conservatory in addition to several other attractions that were actually closed for the season by the time we arrived but hadn’t made our original list of things to do anyway.
The first item on our pre-trip planning was to find a hotel. We wanted to be able to see the Falls from our room and my husband is a Marriott Rewards Member so we booked a room at the Marriott Fallsview Hotel. We did upgrade our room to a higher floor so we could see the Falls from our room. At night, we REALLY enjoyed the view from our room because there is a light show nightly. It was really fun to watch!
Another benefit of our hotel was its proximity to the Wego hub. This is the public transit for Niagara Falls. All we had to do was walk out of our hotel, cross the pedestrian crosswalk, and ride the incline railcar down the hill to catch various busses for all the attractions. This proved very helpful with having young kids. There is a lot of walking involved in Niagara so our daughter was very pleased with these transit options.
One of the quirky travel things we do with our kids is to try to locate geological markers. Both of our children kept a watchful eye out for these markers and would promptly point them out to us for me to snap a photo. We found several throughout the area.
When planning our itinerary, we decided to start by visiting the activity furthest from our hotel. For us, that meant the Whirlpool Aero car was our morning attraction!
The Whirlpool Aero car is a suspended railcar that slowly carries you over the bend in the Niagara River giving you amazing views of the river and the whirlpool that forms as the river makes a sharp turn. It was spectacular!
After the Aero car ride, we rode an elevator underground to the White Water Walk.
Here we walked down a long boardwalk that, at some spots, was only about 4 feet above the river. The rushing water made it very noisy, so conversations were difficult, but the views were still just as impressive. There are several areas where you can take family photos and we suggest wearing waterproof shoes since some of the waves are large enough to actually wet the boardwalk, and thus your feet.
After seeing the attractions that were “far away” (about a mile or two from Niagara Falls themselves,) we boarded the Hornblower for our Niagara Cruise.
**TIP** Put your phone in a zippered bag and don’t get it out unless you are SURE it is waterproof. It will get wet! We used our GoPro for videos of our cruise and just froze scenes to “take” pictures of this part of our trip.
The cruise takes you past the American Falls and inside the horseshoe area of the Canadian falls. It was so much fun and so cold!! Since we were there off-season, the boat wasn’t crowded and there was virtually no wait. The kids REALLY liked that.
After our cruise, we rode another elevator down and went BEHIND THE FALLS! There are tunnels carved out that allow people to walk behind the Canadian Falls. I think this was honestly my favorite attraction. It was slow going, but once we got to one of the lookouts, the kids were enamored at the amount of water falling and how loud it was (the tunnels echo like crazy!)
Our kids thought it was funny that each time we did a “wet” activity, we got a different colored poncho. Throughout the day we sported red, yellow, and blue ponchos.
By this point, we were exhausted and rode the incline railcar back to our hotel for some rest time before heading back out for supper.
Since we are a former homeschooling family, we still try to incorporate education into our trips. Our son has started being interested in “fancy” cars and is especially interested in Teslas since a mall that we frequent has charging stations in their parking lot. On the way to supper, we stopped at the Nikolai Tesla park and learned about him and the type of electrical current he was able to create.
After supper, we went back to our rooms, turned the lights off, and enjoyed the light show on the Falls before quickly slipping off to dreamland.
The next morning, we had to check out of our hotel so we visited the Butterfly Conservatory. It is not close to the rest of the Falls attractions so we decided to give it its own day and drive to it on our way to Toronto. It was also a rainy day so our car was very helpful for this. After a brief video about the conservatory and the lifecycle of a butterfly, we were allowed to roam, catch, feed, etc. the butterflies for as long as we wanted. Our daughter is animal crazy and the sheer volume of butterflies swooping by amazed her. She did not want to leave.
However, we had to leave around lunchtime and head to Toronto because we had more exploring to do!
So, if you are planning a trip to Niagara Falls and you are taking your kids, be sure to check out the Adventure Passes to save you time AND money (especially if anyone is under 6.) USE THE WEGO SYSTEM AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! The maps are clearly labeled as to what trolley/bus to take and they will take you throughout the city. Also, decide on something cool to try to find as you walk around- we did geological markers, but another fun one (and one our kids started noticing and counting) are to see how many BLACK squirrels you spot. (HINT- there are plenty!)
Go visit Niagara, take your kids, make memories, and have a blast!!!
Our Wrightings 